Echoes From The Attic and Poems, Grace Church: A Hammond Landmark, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Submitted to the USGenWeb Archives by Don Johnson, Feb. 2001
Typed by Belford Carver
Written by by Edna F. Campbell
Copyrighted by Edna F. Campbell
With special thanks to her family for permission to use her works.

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GRACE CHURCH:  A HAMMOND LANDMARK

Picturesque Grace Memorial Episcopal church, the oldest church in Hammond, is the 
pride of local historians.  The sanctuary, suggestive of early New England architectural 
lines, commemorates one of the town's settlers, Mertie Waterman Cate.

The church building was consecrated in October, 1888, but the congregation's history 
dates back to 1866, when Sunday School classes were held in the home of Mrs. Cate and 
her husband, Charles E. Cate.

Six years later, in 1872, the rev. Herman Duncan, Episcopal missionary for the Florida 
Parishes, was asked by the people to bring the Sunday School into the Episcopal Church.  
Prompted by these beginnings, a desire for a church building grew.  An anonymous donor 
sent a donation of 4500 to be used for the cause, and plans began to take shape.  Charles 
Cate donated land for the church and the adjoining cemetery.  A mission society was 
formed to execute the plans, and the charter was signed Jan. 29, 1876.

On Sunday, March 12, 1876 the First Sunday in Lent, the first service was held in the 
new church building; the Rt. Rev. Joseph Pere Bell Wilmer preached.

On this day, records show, Samuel Melzar Cate, son of Charles and Mertie Cate, was 
baptized.  Confirmed were Thomas Waterman Cate, Lucy Cate, and Mary Eudora Ott.

On dec. 7, 1887, Mertie Waterman Cate died.  In her name, an outstanding debt in the 
amount of $850 was cancelled by her husband, and the property was given to the mission 
society.  Cate, acting as agent for the mission, deeded the properties to the Episcopal 
Diocese of Louisiana.

The church was consecrated the next day by Rev. John N. Gallagher, with the Rev. W. C. 
Barnes as officiating priest.  The service dedicated Grace Memorial Episcopal church in 
the name of Mertie Waterman Cate.

--DIXIE, Aug. 14, 1966

(From ECHOES FROM THE ATTIC AND POEMS by Edna F. Campbell, n.d.)

(Pic First Hammond Church)

(See also Part VII, "Old Episcopal  Church".)